About three years ago when hubby and I went to a buffet restaurant to eat, we were asked for the first time if we were seniors . I noticed the sign on the cash register said “Senior discount for our customers 60 years and older.” We said no, paid full price and went on in. I didn’t say anything but inside my mind was whirling. Sixty? SIXTY! I was only fifty-two! I didn’t mind looking fifty-two when I was fifty-two but I didn’t want people thinking I was sixty when I was only fifty-two! After we finished eating, we hit the road and Mark noticed I was more quiet than usual. He kept trying to get me into a conversation but I wasn’t in the mood, I wanted to lick my wounds! Finally he asked, more than a little annoyed, what the heck was wrong with me, what had he done?! I said, “YOU didn’t do anything, but that girl at the restaurant thought we were sixty years old!!!!!” He just laughed and said, “Oh Norm, if she was out of her teens, she barely was. Everyone looks old when you’re that age.” I said, “I know, but I don’t like it.” He finally got me to laugh about it and it became an inside joke between us every time we ate somewhere, rather we were going to be offered the senior discount or not. As the months and years have passed, I’ve noticed the young cashiers studying our faces for just a second or two before either ringing us up full price or asking, “Senior?” I always breathe a sigh of relief when we get through the line without hearing the dreaded word.
Last week, when we were there, we sailed through the line with barely a second glance. I didn’t think anything of it until today, when I was putting the receipts from my billfold into the computer. As I typed in the name of the restaurant, the amount that we last paid automatically appeared in the amount column. The receipt was over four dollars less. “Why would that be?” I thought, “The buffet is always the same amount.” I looked down, and sure enough, there they were, the words Two Senior Buffets. We weren’t even asked! They just assumed we were sixty! I had to chuckle to myself and put the receipt to the side to show Mark that we’d finally crossed the line!
My daughter suggested maybe we just looked like really nice people and the girl wanted to be nice to us. That had to be it! Or maybe, just maybe, even though we don’t know how, or when it happened, we are fifty-five and fifty-seven years old. And even though we don’t want to believe it, even though we still feel like kids on the inside, on the outside, we look our age. I still don’t like it, but I am starting to accept it. Who knows, before long I may enthusiastically ask everyone if they offer a senior discount, but not just yet. I’ve got to fight it just a little longer. I do believe I’ll see if that box of “Nice and Easy” that’s been setting on my shelf can help me pay full price at least a few more times!
Simple Life Blessings 